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Analysis of Richard Connell’s The Most Dangerous Game

By NASRULLAH MAMBROL on May 30, 2021

Richard Connell’s “The Most Dangerous Game” is widely anthologized in both high school literature and college introductory fiction courses largely because it offers a fine illustration of many of the potential conflicts that an author can incorporate into an compelling plotline: man versus man, man versus nature, and man versus himself.

Initially set on board a steamer headed for South America, “The Most Dangerous Game” begins with a conversation between two hunters, Rainsford and Whitney, who are aboard the vessel and are nearing a dangerous stretch of water that shipping charts label as Ship Trap Island . Their discussion centers on their chosen sport, big game hunting, and whether wild animals have any fear when they are being stalked by humans.

Almost immediately the reader senses that Rainsford’s surroundings are threatening. The sea and the island’s negative reputation place him in jeopardy, which is heightened when he falls overboard while investigating the sound of three gunshots he hears from the deck of his ship.

Although he survives the fall, Rainsford is savvy enough to get to shore by following the direction suggested by the shots. However, upon his arrival at Ship Trap Island, the safety he anticipates is not evident; instead he is faced with a ragged jungle environment and evidence of a fierce struggle that has recently occurred there.

Richard Connell/AmericanLiterature.com

Ultimately, Rainsford makes his way inland and, to his surprise, he discovers a palatial chateau, which he initially feels is a mirage, but he eventually finds that the house is occupied by a General Zaroff, a military aristocrat with a deaf mute servant of extraordinary strength whose name is Ivan. Aware of Rainsford’s reputation for hunting expertise, Zaroff initially seems delighted to have him as a guest since he, too, considers himself a master of the hunt. Indeed, his feudal dining room is decorated with the heads of many of his animal kills, including elephants, tigers, and bears. As the two discover what they consider to be the most dangerous game animal, the reader begins to recognize that the general is far from humane in his pursuit of the sport.

Rather, as Zaroff recounts his career to Rainsford, it becomes clear that the general now finds lower animals less of a challenge. Bored with their ability to offer him competition, Zaroff had retreated to this isolated primitive jungle exclusively to hunt the only animal that reasons: men. Zaroff clearly expresses his belief that even his human prey are an inferior species—the weak of the world—but individuals whom he trains to make them competitive to his superior skills. He then offers the individual he hunts a game of cat and mouse. If Zaroff catches his prey, the individual loses (and dies); if the prey eludes him for three days, the individual is free to leave Ship Trap Island unharmed. However, such an escape has so far never been achieved by those whom he has hunted, and no one has succeeded in winning the game.

Clearly, after initially believing Rainsford’s conflict will be environmental in nature, readers now see that a man-versus-man conflict emerges as a primary emphasis of Connell. The intellectual and physical battle between the two men takes center stage, displacing the original struggle with the environment. Since Rainsford offers the general a much more challenging opponent than he has had previously, the game of wits is intriguing. For Zaroff, the hunt has become a plaything, and he toys with Rainsford as he tracks him nightly, at times intentionally letting him slip away from being captured and killed. Suddenly the word game no longer refers to animals but rather suggests an elaborate chess match whose loser forfeits his very life.

The story concludes with Rainsford forced to do battle with Zaroff. Though outnumbered (Zaroff has dogs and Ivan to help), Rainsford does not panic and uses the tricks of the hunting trade to outsmart his opponent. Nevertheless, the general discovers Rainsford during the first hunt and, preferring to extend the contest not to capture him, decides rather to enjoy what he believes will be his eventual triumph over a longer period. During the second encounter, Rainsford becomes more successful as he uses a Malayman-catcher at least to wound Zaroff. Thus the man-versus-man conflict intensifies, and the game becomes more complex. Though Rainsford claims the lives of both the general’s best hunting dog and Ivan, he is eventually trapped on a high cliff. Since retreat is impossible, he is then forced to seek refuge in the dangerous sea by jumping from his precarious location. While Zaroff believes he has again conquered even though he has not killed his prey personally, his opponent, Rainsford, returns later that night to claim victory, having proved successful not only in subduing his dangerous surrounding but in eluding his hunter and surviving for three days.

Surprisingly, as the story draws to a close, Rainsford is not content just to be free. Instead he proves that men (not wild animals) are indeed the most dangerous game by challenging his antagonist to a duel and winning. Though Connell deftly avoids showing Rainsford’s actual killing of his fellow man and his subsequent decision to feed the general’s body to his pack of hungry dogs, the author surely concludes that when pressed to desperation, man will resort to any means to stay alive. Consequently, it is evident that Rainsford, who initially revolted at the thought of violently attacking others, has struggled with his own value systems and eventually decided that self-preservation may require dire and even immoral action. His personal impulse toward morality at the beginning of the story is thus, at the story’s end, overcome by the necessity to survive, and his inner struggle introduces the third primary fictional conflict: man’s eternal struggle with himself.

Considered a plot-centered story, “The Most Dangerous Game” has rather static stereotypical characters including a noble heroic protagonist and a vicious and unsympathetic villain, but Connell’s ironic twist at the story’s end makes the story an appealing read, especially for those who prefer exciting series of events to complex character studies. It is a well-crafted narrative that lends itself well to basic analysis by younger and perhaps less experienced readers.

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The Most Dangerous Game

Richard connell, ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions.

Welcome to the LitCharts study guide on Richard Connell's The Most Dangerous Game . Created by the original team behind SparkNotes, LitCharts are the world's best literature guides.

The Most Dangerous Game: Introduction

The most dangerous game: plot summary, the most dangerous game: detailed summary & analysis, the most dangerous game: themes, the most dangerous game: quotes, the most dangerous game: characters, the most dangerous game: symbols, the most dangerous game: literary devices, the most dangerous game: quiz, the most dangerous game: theme wheel, brief biography of richard connell.

Historical Context of The Most Dangerous Game

Other books related to the most dangerous game.

• Full Title: The Most Dangerous Game, or The Hounds of Zaroff
• Where Written: Westport, Connecticut
• When Published: 1924
• Literary Period: Modernism
• Genre: Short story, adventure
• Setting: A remote island in the Caribbean Sea
• Climax: After eluding the murderous General Zaroff in the jungle, Sanger Rainsford kills the general in his mansion.
• Antagonist: General Zaroff
• Point of View: Third person

Extra Credit for The Most Dangerous Game

Item1. “The Most Dangerous Game” was also published in Collier’s Weekly under the name “The Hounds of Zaroff,” possibly a reference to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes novel The Hound of the Baskervilles .

Item2. Richard Connell’s first job after graduating college was as a homicide reporter for the New York American .

The Most Dangerous Game Essay

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46 The Most Dangerous Game Essay Questions, Topics, & Examples

Polishing your thesis statement or topic sentence for The Most Dangerous game essay or writing the whole paper? Get an idea from the list gathered by our experts.

🏆 Best The Most Dangerous Game Topic Ideas & Essay Examples

📌 interesting the most dangerous game essay topics, 👍 good the most dangerous game essay questions & topics.

• “The Most Dangerous Game” Narrative Essay The play notes here that Rainsford loves hunting to the extent that he calls it the best sport in the world.
• Conflict in ‘The Most Dangerous Game’ by Connell Rainsford went through an internal conflict when he was in the ocean and had to keep stay focused by not panicking and realizing that his clothes were not helping his strokes and he ‘wrestled out […]
• Violence and Justice in The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell Considering this, the novel conveys the overall impact of the brutality on the minds of human beings, as part of society, by raising a question of the justifiable murder.
• “The Most Dangerous Game” a Story by Richard Connell “The Most Dangerous Game”, a short story written by Richard Connell, is one of the first literary pieces to tell the tale of human hunting a subject highly popularized in the contemporary popular culture.
• The Irony of Humanity in The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connel The aim of this essay is to analyze the theme of the irony of humanity in The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connel.
• Settings in “The Destructors” by Graham Greene and “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connel The interactions of the characters, in that regard, are neither sufficient to explain the purpose of the author, nor to connect it to the purpose of the story.
• The Foil Character in “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell
• Suspenseful Components in “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell
• Symbolism in Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” and Richard Connell’s “The Most Dangerous Game”
• The Use of Suspense in “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell
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• The Hunting Trip in “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell
• Types of External Conflict Illustrated in “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell
• The Similarities in “The Child by Tiger” and “The Most Dangerous Game”
• The Hunter Becomes the Hunted in “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell
• Characters From “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell
• The Craziness of General Zaroff in “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell
• The Fear of the Hunt in “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell
• The Use of Different Techniques to Bring Suspense in Richard Connell’s “The Most Dangerous Game”
• The Settings in “The Destructors” and “The Most Dangerous Game”
• The Value of Life in “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell
• The Character Rainsford as Depicted in “The Most Dangerous Game”
• The Differences Between Richard Connell’s “The Most Dangerous Game” and Its Hollywood Adaptation
• The Importance of Choices in “The Most Dangerous Game”
• The Unexpected Killers in “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell
• Courage in Individuals in on Being Seventeen “The Most Dangerous Game”
• The Immoral Acts in James Thurber’s “The Most Dangerous Game” and Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”
• Irony in “The Most Dangerous Game” and “The Cask of Amontillado”
• The Suspenseful Tone in “The Most Dangerous Game”
• Comparison of “The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind” and “The Most Dangerous Game”
• The Human Condition in “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell
• A Look at the Character of the Three Hunters in “The Most Dangerous Game” and “A Sound of Thunder”
• “The Most Dangerous Game”: Conflict, Resolution, and Morality
• The Protagonist in “The Most Dangerous Game”
• Elements of Literature in Richard Connell’s “The Most Dangerous Game”
• The Various Ways That Color Is Used to Set a Mood in “The Most Dangerous Game”
• Alternate Ending in “The Most Dangerous Game”
• Time Period of “The Most Dangerous Game” for Obtaining a Deeper Understanding of the Story
• The Impact of Setting in Richard Connell’s “The Most Dangerous Game”
• “The Most Dangerous Game”: Human Thoughts vs. Instinct
• The Use of Literary Devices in “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell
• The Hunting of People in “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell
• The Foreshadowing Moments in “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell
• Comparison of Themes in “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell and “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne
• The Murders and Murderers in “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell
• The Characterization of General Zaroff in “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell
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Education Standards

Nebraska's college and career ready standards for english language arts.

Learning Domain: Reading

Standard: Cite specific textual evidence to analyze and evaluate the effects of historical, cultural, biographical, and political influences of literary and informational text written by culturally diverse authors, to develop a regional, national, and international multicultural perspective.

Standard: Construct and/or answer literal, inferential, critical, and interpretive questions, analyzing and synthesizing evidence from the text and additional sources to support answers.

Standard: Demonstrate an understanding of complex text by using textual evidence to support analysis, reflection, and research via multiple mediums (e.g., writing, artistic representation, video, other media).

Learning Domain: Writing

Standard: Generate a draft that conveys complex ideas and critical thinking through analysis, reflection, and use of effective organizational patterns that are appropriate to the purpose and intended audience.

Standard: Apply standard rules of grammar and paragraph formation, including parallel structure and subordination.

Standard: Provide oral, written, and/or digital descriptive feedback to other writers.

Standard: Publish a legible document using a variety of media, and apply various formatting techniques to enhance the readability and impact of the document (e.g., fonts, spacing, design, images, style conventions, citations, and manuscript requirements).

Standard: Communicate information and ideas effectively in analytic, argumentative, descriptive, informative, narrative, poetic, persuasive, and reflective modes to multiple audiences using a variety of media and formats.

Standard: Provide evidence from literary or informational text to support analysis, reflection, and research.

Learning Domain: Multiple Literacies

Standard: Locate, organize, analyze, evaluate, and synthesize information from print and digital resources to create new understandings and defend conclusions.

"The Most Dangerous Game" Argumentative Essay

This unit was designed to give freshmen a small writing task that is similar to the ACT writing. "The Most Dangerous Game" generates great conversation of the ideas of morals and ethics, and this writing task allows students the opportunity to explore their own morals and ethics.

OBJECTIVES: The learner will...

• identify the main points of an argument and connect arguments to supportive material
• argue a chosen side using supportive details
• construct personal beliefs about morals and ethics
• write and edit a short argumentative essay 
• collaborate with peers

Introduction

TEACHER NOTES:

This unit was designed to give freshmen a small writing task that is similar to the ACT writing. "The Most Dangerous Game" generates great conversation of the ideas of morals and ethics, and this writing task allows students the opportunity to explore their own morals and ethics. 

Once they have a grasp on morals and ethics in this first , have them read "The Most Dangerous Game." 

LET'S ARGUE!!!!

We are going to take a dive into the concepts of morals and ethics. you will watch two videos. one pertaining to morals and one pertaining to ethics. , in a short response, explain the differences and similarities between morals and ethics. submit your response to the lms assignment titled "morals vs ethics.".

"The Most Dangerous Game"

Click here for digital version of "the most dangerous game.", questions to answer:.

• Who determines what is considered right and what is considered wrong in this story? 
• How does Zaroff justify what he is doing on the island? 
• Why does Rainsford seek revenge in the end? Is that considered doing what is right? 
• What are the effects of Zaroff's and Rainsford's actions? 
• When is it okay to kill someone? 

***Submit your answers to the LMS assignment titled "TMDG Questions."

Writing Task

You can change up the outline as much as you need to suite your studnets. Suggestion: delete one of the "Main Point" sections to avoid confusion since the writing assignment is really only calling for two paragraphs. You can use another form of writing guide. Some students may want a writing guide to help them visualize what they need in regards to sentences. You will find that resource below. 

Writing Guide

Transition Words Website

Pick a perspective (listed below) and argue for that side. Refute and concede various points that the other side makes. Follow the steps below to help. 

Start a Google Doc and share it with the teacher. (Put everything into this one document, just add new pages.)

Make a pro/con list about hunting humans

Pick a perspective that you agree with and write a paragraph as to why you agree with it. 

Write a paragraph about why you don't agree with the other perspective. 

If there is anything that you "kind of" agree with then say that and state why. 

Write an introduction and a conclusion

  USE THE OUTLINE TO GUIDE YOUR WRITING.

USE THE WRITING GUIDE IF NEEDED

TRANSITION WORDS RESOURCE

PERSPECTIVE ONE:

What zaroff was doing is good for the environment because the world is overpopulated, and resources are being depleted at alarming rates. it is better to have fewer people than starving, homeless people. , perspective two:, no matter how a person looks at this, what zaroff was doing is murder. by law, murder is illegal, and no person is above the law. these people were stolen from their lives and forced to play zaroff's sick and twisted game. this is immoral and inhumane., peer editing, assign the peer editors. ensure to go over expectations for partner work. feel free to edit and modify the checklist to suit the needs of your students. , peer editing checklist.

You will edit your rough draft with a peer. Click on the link below to get a copy of the peer editing checklist. Share your document with your partner, read through it, offer edits, and complete the checklist. Use the comment feature on Google Docs to complete the assignment. To show that you made comments on your partner's document, take a screen shot and add it to the bottom of your checklist be fore you submit it. Then, submit your checklist and edits to the LMS assignment titled "Peer Editing."

Peer editing.

Feel free to edit the rubric  once you have made your copy. 

Once you have finished editing your final draft, create a fresh document, label and format it in proper MLA 8 format. From there, you will submit the document into the LMS assignment titled "Final TMDG Argumentative Essay."

Click this link to get a copy of the rubric . , version history.

The Most Dangerous Game Richard Connell

The Most Dangerous Game essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell.

The Most Dangerous Game Material

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The Most Dangerous Game Essays

Rainsford's character in "the most dangerous game" sidney o. omulo 9th grade, the most dangerous game.

“The Most Dangerous Game” is a short story and thriller by Richard Connell, which takes place after World War II on a remote island. The story chronicles the misadventures of a distraught castaway, as he makes his way through a mad man’s...

The Three Hunters Anonymous 9th Grade

Richard Connell and Ray Bradbury introduce the reader to experienced hunters who share three common character traits in their short stories. After comparing and contrasting character traits among Rainsford and Zaroff from Connell’s short story “...

The Most Dangerous Game: A Hunt For Morality Paul Bergstrom 10th Grade

Albert Einstein once said, “Force always attracts men of low morality.” This statement illustrates the idea that men with low values or standards will often use force to build up a feeling of dominance which also makes someone oblivious to...

Analyzing Suspense in ‘The Most Dangerous Game’ Anonymous 8th Grade

Suspense is one of the most effective tools used to grip the readers undivided attention in creative writing. It pulls the reader into the story, and gets them invested in the characters and the story line. It creates the intense feeling of...

Characterization in “The Most Dangerous Game” Anonymous 12th Grade

Rainsford and General Zaroff are the protagonist and antagonist of “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell. The story follows the idea of the most dangerous hunting game, where Rainsford must survive three nights of getting hunted by General...